Dear friends,
Thanks for another gorgeous Journal Jam. What better way to spend Sunday afternoon than eating baked goods in the sun.
It's always a pleasure to catch up and explore the big, juicy topics with you. As Felix said, it's special to be able to connect and share our experiences as we work towards our vastly different personal, professional and creative goals - an exhibition, a novel, a community, a new job!
Here are our nuggets of wisdom from this month:
It takes 100 steps to get to 100 steps.
Whether running, tap dancing or writing a novel, we all noted that we get to where we're going by taking small, incremental steps. Why is this so hard to remember in the midst of the action!? Maybe reigning in our expectations and turning down the pressure can help us move towards bigger, more audacious goals with ease, grace and creative flexibility.
In this way, leaning into process may be helpful.
Shifting our attention from outcome or output and instead looking at our processes, routines and systems, especially during the fallow seasons in-between projects, jobs or relationships. And those crazy periods when it feels like you're not in control of anything. Is it possible to embrace the chaos, the unknown, the void, and instead focus on the thing we can control - how we're showing up for ourselves each day? This is something I'm going to think more about as I uproot my life and move to Bali for a season. I think my processes, routines and systems are what will help me be "me" wherever in the world I am.
Do ideas come from us? Are they of us?
We've all seemingly encountered experiences where ideas we've had have magically appeared in the world six months later. In this way, do we really own the idea? Or are we just channelling it on behalf of the universe?
Maybe it's helpful not to take our ideas so personally. Instead, can we be guided by the signals we're getting from the world around us, as though the universe wants us to execute this idea, not the other way around. Creative juggernauts Rick Rubin, Elizabeth Gilbert and Julia Cameron pick this up in their books on creative process (see below).
Recommendations
Reading
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami.*
Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
The Creative Act, Rick Rubin
The Artists Way, Julia Cameron
The Pillow Book, Sei Shonagon**
Listening
Graduation Day, the Minimalists
Seasonality, learning to hope and the gender citation gap - BBC All in the Mind
Have a beautiful month ahead, happy journaling.
With love,
Alex
Author’s note:
*Azka and I agree that Murakami's novels are overrated - sorry! - but this book is compelling as it explores the relationship between writing and running.
**The Pillow Book, possibly the oldest (and most famous) diary of all time, was written by Sei Shōnagon, a Japanese court lady, more than 1,000 years ago.